This was only my 2nd project after the tabletop easel. Due to my inexperience this took longer for me to build and required more trips to the store, but was overall a straightforward and uncomplicated build, and my girls love their new bed. The stain application isn't perfect, but I'm very happy with the color / informal look, and found the Minwax water based stain very easy to work with - my 5 year old was able to help.
Tips:
-To make construction easier I ultimately inset the side rails 1", using scrap 1/4" plywood and 1x4" to support the sides while the bed was on its side. This made it easier to get a more precise fit, and enabled me to manage it without an additional pair of hands.
-I should have accounted for the cleats interfering with the drill before putting pocket holes in the support 2x6's, as I wound up needing to redrill them after gluing on the cleats as the cleats got in the way of the drill.
-We do find the bed shimmies a bit back and forth, so will be adding another 75" support brace at the bottom.
-To fit our space I narrowed the platform 1.5" and there is still plenty of room to play on the platform, and the small ladder is easy to navigate.
-The full stairs wouldn't fit our space so I first tried adding 2 2x4's steps directly into the platform frame as a ladder, but my girls (3 & 5) found this a little difficult to navigate. So I wound up building a modified ladder from the Simple Bunk Bed plan and that works well.
